School will be out soon and that means that kids will soon be dragging home the biggest hodge podge pile of art ever. Now that my kids are older, in Grades 6 and 11, I miss those days. Those crayon drawings with “Mom” scrawled across them in shaky crayon…they really are the most beautiful pictures in the world. If there are young ‘picassos’ in your house coming home with artwork, now is the perfect time to pick out the best of the best. And instead of letting them stay hidden away in some rubber tote container, why not make an area in your home where you can display those treasures?
{Better Homes & Garden}
I recently read {for the second time} Nate Berkus’ book, “The Things That Matter”. He is one designer that I think has got it right….our homes should reflect who we are, where we have been and what we love. For me, that means I want my home to reflect that, at one point, I had two little people in my home that loved to draw and paint. All the time. On any scrap of paper. And even though the crayons and markers in our house collect dust now, I want to remember that period in our family life cycle.
Two winters ago, I paid homage to my kids’ ‘artwork’ years with this ‘art gallery’ wall that I created in our family room. I love it so much that it has become my favourite picture display in our entire house. I marvel at the colourful creations that my kids worked so hard to create for school projects, and remember how proud they were when they showed them to me. To create this wall, I worked with a very skimpy budget, with many of the frames coming from the local Goodwill store, or the discount section at a local home goods store. I spray-painted many of the frames in either black or white to help unify the collection. Then I laid out the frames on the floor to play with it until I had an arrangement that I was happy with. The last step was to hang it on the wall following the pattern I had laid on the floor.
This wall is a daily reminder to me of the things that matter. And it means more to me than anything I could have purchased.
How about you? Have you surrounded yourself with things that you love? Do you have treasures that you display?
[…] Kids’ Art Gallery Wall by Hasley […]